Re: Catherine Nevin "The Black Widow"'s Appeal Starts

Catherine Nevin was refused access to the files...

The Court of Criminal Appeal today refused to grant the disclosure of information related to the 1974 Dublin Monaghan bombings, sought by Catherine Nevin as part of her attempt to have her murder conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Paul Anthony McDermott SC, for the office of the Department of the Taoiseach, argued there was “absolute privilege” attaching to the material collected by the McEntee inquiry into the bombings.

He said when the inquiry’s chairman, Mr Paddy McEntee SC, handed over custody of the “three or four presses” of “secret” documents to the Taoiseach's office, he did so because they could give rise to a risk to people’s lives, State security and relations with external agencies.

The findings of the 2007 report could not be published for legal reasons.

Counsel for Nevin, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, had claimed that questions arose as to the identity of a man who stayed in the Four Courts Hotel between May 10 and 16, suspected of being involved in the Dublin Monaghan Bombings.
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So is it all right to keep her in jail because these files are so sensitive?

This thread, like Catherine Nevin's appeal, is on life support. I don't know if anyone thinks her conviction was sound, but the "appalling vista" that opens if she is innocent seems too much for the system too bear.

This is an old report from 2003, when her first appeal failed. The senior investigating Guard said

'One of the lessons we have learned from this investigation is how vital something that might seem innocuous can be when it is put together with other facts. Circumstantial evidence can be woven into a very strong evidential chain,

She even made fake pieces of ammunition to the police officers' specifications, including a bizarre "metal tube with fins coming out of it". The Irish police sought to convince the RUC that this was a new prototype IRA rocket. Ms McGlinchey's charade to help the corrupt police was so melodramatic it was described by one local resident as reminiscent of the 1970s police show, Hawaii Five-0.

Judge Adrian Hardiman made some remarks on the "Suspect Antecedent form on William McClean -

The Court of Criminal Appeal has declined the application for access to the documents relating to the Dublin-Monaghan bombing.
However, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman said while the newspaper article had 'overstated' the suspect antecedent history form, the form did raise a number of questions.

The judge said while gardaí had dismissed the form as worthless and he had been given the impression that someone drew it up while messing around on a computer, if this was the case, its title was misleading.He said it had 35 headings and was for people suspected of or charged with serious crime and was hardly something someone would dream up on a wet afternoon.He also said it was unusual that while all garda documents had numbers - this had none.
The case has been adjourned to April.

I came across a few old Machine Nation posts on this that I'm just moving over here for the record.

10/6/2008

Ive posted on P.ie previously about Catherine Nevin. Catherine Nevin was demonised by the Press and convicted on the basis of very strange evidence by informants.

Quote:10/06/2008 - 18:09:59
The DPP is opposed to handing over files relating to the Dublin Monaghan bombings being sought by convicted murderer Catherine Nevin in her bid to have her conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.

Ms Nevin has initiated proceedings before the Court of Criminal Appeal in which she is arguing that material not given to her lawyers at the time of her trial contained information casting doubt on the credibility and motivation of key prosecution witnesses in the case.

In a motion to the court, Ms Nevin's lawyers are seeking an order that the DPP disclose all material and documents relating to her case. Ms Nevin's lawyers contend that documents - including material on the Dublin Monaghan bombing and garda security files on witnesses Gerry Heapes, John Jones and William McClean - are relevant and would assist her in undermining the credibility of the three men. She claims the documents may also potentially undermine the credibility of another State witness, Patrick Russell.

At the CCA today, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman was told that the DPP is opposing the motion to handing over the material requested by Ms Nevin's lawyers. The judge adjourned the matter to a date later next month to allow both sides exchange affidavits on the discovery motion.

The material sought includes what the Nevin side describes as security files indicating that Mr McClean was a suspect in the Dublin/Monaghan bombings of 1974.
Ms Nevin claims Mr McClean had denied during the trial he had any paramilitary connections, but that a Garda Special Branch file going back to 1974 would have an effect on his credibility in that regard.

Ms Nevin is also alleging a failure to disclose material relating to her husband and to Jack White's Inn. She claims the material includes security files indicating that the pub was on a list of pubs with suspected IRA connections. It is understood Ms Nevin will argue that any such material would indicate an alternative motive for killing Mr Nevin.

An appeal against her conviction was dismissed in 2003 by the CCA but Ms Nevin has now brought proceedings under the Crime Procedure Act 1993 to have her case declared a miscarriage of justice.

Ms Nevin (aged 55) was convicted after a 42-day trial in April 2000 of the murder of her husband Tom at their pub, Jack White's Inn, Brittas Bay, on March 19, 1996.

She was also convicted on three counts of soliciting three different men to kill her husband in 1989 and 1990, six years before his murder. She is serving a life sentence on the murder charge and a total of seven years on the soliciting charges.

Catherine Nevin’s appeal against her conviction for murder began in the Court of Appeal yesterday. Ms Nevin was convicted in 2000 of the murder of her husband Tom at their pub, Jack White's Inn, Brittas Bay, on March 19, 1996. The appeal will be based on evidence that prosecutors failed to disclose at her original trial that witnesses , William McClean and former provos Gerry Heapes and John Jones ,were long-standing police informers . Nevin’s lawyer ,Anne Fitzgibbon , is seeking access to classified documents including security files which indicate that Mr McClean was a suspect in the Dublin/Monaghan bombings of 1974.

I am saying that throughout the trial the prosecution evidence sounded to me preposterous and it was very hard on the basis of the press reports of the evidence to understand how a conviction was obtained. The Press reporting which focused on Catherine Nevin's appearance and labelled her the "Black Widow" was shocking.

The fact that she has maintained her innocence and has done everything she possibly could since conviction to clear her name adds to it. I don't understand anything about the politics / paramilitary side of it - I am relying only on the evidence in court, as reported at the time in the press.

I have a nose for dodgy evidence and never for one moment thought Nora Wall, the nun convicted for complicity with rape (later found innocent) was guilty.

Re: The Nevin Case - the Fight Continues Wed Jun 11, 2008 11:51 am

I'm in agreement with CF.

This is pure opinion and hearsay on my behalf. I have a friend who was a tenant of Catherine Nevin. He attended the case when she was convicted. He thought it disgraceful, the amount of evidence that was not allowed, due to the potential damage it could cause to the State. And indeed, he also thought it disgraceful, that all concerned, involved themselves in blackening her name, before and during the case.

If the above is a little too strong - feel free to mod it (I don't think it is myself).

Re: The Nevin Case - the Fight Continues Wed Jun 11, 2008 6:09 pm

The state lies all the time and innocent people are convicted as we have seen time and time again. In simple cases like the guilford four everyone believes it but at the next level the doubters are called loons.

I hope the Appeal comes to a just and fair conclusion.

“ We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act. ”— Jean-Paul Sartre

Yes, that was shocking, and hilarious, but they were fake bombs and no one was hurt.

Yeah, hilarious for Frank Shortt and his family when he had to spend 3 years in the Joy on charges concocted by Lennon and McMahon. Hilarious for the McBreartys. Hilarious for the family of Eddie Fullerton. And that's just three of the better-known cases in one small corner of Donegal - I know of plenty of similar cases all over the country that have never come to light properly.

Ms Nevin is only one in a long, long, long line of citizens that have been fitted up, framed, harassed, intimidated, beaten, smeared and otherwise abused by the stinking corrupt and completely out-of-control Gardaí.

Yeah, hilarious for Frank Shortt and his family when he had to spend 3 years in the Joy on charges concocted by Lennon and McMahon. Hilarious for the McBreartys. Hilarious for the family of Eddie Fullerton. And that's just three of the better-known cases in one small corner of Donegal - I know of plenty of similar cases all over the country that have never come to light properly.

Ms Nevin is only one in a long, long, long line of citizens that have been fitted up, framed, harassed, intimidated, beaten, smeared and otherwise abused by the stinking corrupt and completely out-of-control Gardaí.

The link doesn't refer to anyone being arrested or imprisoned and my comparison was between the Adrienne McGlinchey's fake devices and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

Over a period of more than a year she ground fertiliser by hand in a coffee machine while watching television in her flat, stored bomb-making equipment in her bedroom, and delivered neatly-packaged hoax weapons stashes. She even made fake pieces of ammunition to the police officers' specifications, including a bizarre "metal tube with fins coming out of it". The Irish police sought to convince the RUC that this was a new prototype IRA rocket

If you know of cases where you have reason to believe people have been or may have been fitted up, why not highlight them ?

“ We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act. ”— Jean-Paul Sartre

Ms Nevin is only one in a long, long, long line of citizens that have been fitted up, framed, harassed, intimidated, beaten, smeared and otherwise abused by the stinking corrupt and completely out-of-control Gardaí.

It is POSSIBLE that she is entirely innocent but neither you nor I know that for sure.

All that can really be stated is that there is one load of murk around the whole case.

The Commission concluded Ms Wall was unpredictable and irrational, bullied staff, beat the children, drank to excess and put children at risk by leaving junior staff in charge.

Details of parties held in the home, men who stayed overnight, older boys sexually abusing younger ones and being drunk in front of the children have emerged in the report of the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse.

According to Judge Sean Ryan's inquiry report, Ms Wall regularly drank whiskey in the sitting room of the home in front of the older children.

It has also emerged that the former Mercy nun had her conviction for the rape of a child quashed in recent years. Ms Wall was convicted in 1999 for the rape of a 10-year-old girl in the home, however, this was declared a miscarriage of justice by the Court of Criminal Appeal in 2005.